Rottingdean Bazaar Have Teamed Up With Paul Smith on a New Book

A new photobook, released last week to coincide with Photo London, sees Paul Smith team up with East Sussex-based design duo Rottingdean Bazaar. A somewhat unlikely pairing – James Theseus Buck and Luke Brooks, the designers behind Rottingdean, are known for their absurdist approach; Smith, for something perhaps more traditional – the designers are nonetheless united by a certain British eccentricity and humour. And Rottingdean have actually been longtime fans of Smith’s work: “James got his mum to buy him a Paul Smith swirl-print belt when he was 15,” the duo recently told Dazed. “There’s a democraticness and humour to Paul Smith which we relate to.” The book itself, made to look like a school library book, was made alongside editor Ben Reardon and sees contributions from photographers Hill & Aubrey, Annie Collinge and Lucy Alex Mac. The stories inside are typically – and brilliantly – surreal, from a series of photographs of various ‘Paula and Paul Smiths’ around the country, to toothpaste, egg shells and false teeth in decorated in Smith’s signature coloured stripes. 

Paul Smith by Rottingdean Bazaar, available from Paul Smith’s online store and Dover Street Market London, is out now.